


Feferi: Descend.

by correctDichotomy



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blood, Gen, Ghosts, Gore, Illustrations, Mind Control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-07 09:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3170597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/correctDichotomy/pseuds/correctDichotomy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's an old seadweller myth about trenches, and the ruddy ghost-glow of the creatures that live in them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feferi: Descend.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anthrop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthrop/gifts).



> "In Irish folklore, a banshee wails nearby when someone is about to die. Alternia is a planet rife with death and death folklore, a planet literally teeming with ghosts and a species that sees angels as devils. What might some of the monsters out there be? Can be a monster/myth AU, pre- or post-Sgrub. Characters selected are suggestions, not required, and you can bring in whomever you like to go poke the zombie with the stick. Approximately a million points in your favor if somebody's bodily autonomy gets chucked out the window."

"One of the oldest pieces of folklore remembered to trollkind is the legend of the drownies: ghosts of the hundreds of lowbloods killed on the ocean by seadwellers, shipborne bluebloods, or both. Supposedly, lowbloods at sea are doomed to more than death. With weak souls that can't escape the pull of the currents, their ghosts are drawn down to the darkest and deepest trenches to suspend in the form of luminescent gelbeasts--which are red, of course--for eternity. Drownies desire only escape from these lonely prisons, and are jealous of the perfect bodies of seadwellers foolish enough to descend that deep. Such trolls are condemned to be entranced by weakened psionic powers and ripped apart as the drownies attempt to tear their way into command of a body strong enough to swim back out of the trench.

This is, understandably, a popular myth. First of all, there are few enough places in the ocean mysterious to seadwellers. Trenches are many thousands of feet deep, and it's recognized by the more honest violetbloods of our acquaintance that the pressure can reach levels unsurvivable to any but the rare tyrian long before they arrive at the seabed. Second, it gives them the chance to use lowblood psionics in a ghost story without admitting fear of their living counterparts. After all, the ghosts are only trapped at the bottom of the ocean because they were weak enough to be killed en masse (often after enslavement) by their betters in the first place. And finally, there is a fucking shit ton of glowing red gelbeasts at about the depth that moonlight and even sunlight stop being detectable by troll eyes. Who could resist telling a tale about that?

Unfortunately for seadwelling thrillseekers, it's all a steaming load of gelbeast crap--assuming that gelbeasts do indeed crap. We have met with several psionics whose talents include communication with the dead, and they all assert that ghosts of every color and creed travel as they please and are unattached to their place of death. Many even retain psionic powers completely unhindered, in which case, let me ask you: after kicking the concave container, what would you use your psionics for? Would you hang out at the bottom of the sea for ages, waiting for some hapless seadweller wiggler to hold still while your friends take a couple chunks out of them? OR, would you use them to trick your kismesis into thinking _they_ had powers until they tried to show someone and made a complete ass out of themselves?

The choice is obvious."

\--"Troll Mythbusters Undead Edition: Separating Tooth From Lie", Jaymie Hynman and Addame Savage (scienterminators, later executed for subversion and "using the entorturetainment industry to motherfucking up and ruin miracles for everybody")

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Fallen London for the term "drownie", which I stole and divorced of all previous context with basically zero shame. Happy Ladystuck!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [descend](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7591423) by [phantasmalreality](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantasmalreality/pseuds/phantasmalreality)




End file.
